That was better than the two-step drop Gov. PAT QUINN said could happen if lawmakers didn’t act on pension changes, which they didn’t. Plus, Moody’s, the other big rating service, didn’t cut the state’s rate further, after dropping it a notch in January.

Still, S&P's downgrade moved Quinn to say he’s going to call the legislative leaders together to work on pensions. This after not meeting with them for nearly two months in the run-up to the Aug. 17 special session on pensions.

Well, good luck with that. The Republican leaders want to reform all the pension systems at once, not just one or two of them. They also oppose shifting costs for downstate teachers to local school districts. Quinn and House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago, are just as insistent that a cost shift occur.

Unless one side or the other is willing to give some ground, the meeting will be just some more wheel-spinning, finger-pointing and lofty talk about how critical it is to do something to control pension costs.

•The other big news of the week was Quinn’s veto of gambling expansion.

Lawmakers could try an override, but it’s going to be tough. Since gambling expansion was put on a Senate bill, the override has to start in the Senate. Assuming they can hold on to all the votes they had in May, supporters need to pick up the votes of another six senators to have enough to override Quinn. That’s 10 percent of the entire chamber. That’s a lot.

Their best bet may be to rework the thing to Quinn’s satisfaction and try to ram it through as a new bill in the veto session or in early January before new lawmakers are sworn in.

•A couple of days before Quinn vetoed the gambling bill, Link made this prediction.

“Tuesday I will get a call from his office about 10 minutes before he makes an announcement telling me he’s going to totally veto the bill because he feels it’s not ready for prime time,” Link said.

He was partially correct. Quinn vetoed the bill. However, Link didn’t get a call before the veto. He said he learned of the veto from staffers and the media. He was not pleased.

•Illinois’ other state fair is about to conclude its run in DuQuoin.

The southern Illinois edition has a lot of the same stuff as the larger Springfield fair, such as harness racing, grandstand shows, rides and a lot of food that tastes really good but isn’t particularly good for you.

What DuQuoin lacks that Springfield had was the governor. Oh, it had a Governor’s Day, but Quinn was a no-show. In fact, Quinn isn’t supposed to appear during the entire run of the DuQuoin State Fair.

Quinn’s office said he couldn’t attend because of prior commitments and the need to act on many bills before the deadline to act on them. Perfectly understandable. He did still have a lot of bills to deal with as the DuQuoin fair started, although he finished them while the fair was still in full swing. And just because the DuQuoin fair is held around Labor Day weekend every year doesn’t mean you can, you know, build a schedule around it.

It’s too bad he didn’t show. Quinn’s Governor’s Day appearance at the Illinois State Fair almost certainly boosted attendance that day, what with all the union protesters on hand to boo him. He could have had the same economic development impact at DuQuoin.

Doug Finke of the State Capitol Bureau can be reached at (217) 788-1527 or doug.finke@sj-r.com.